School Climate Reform

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• School Climate Reform Teen Dating Violence
• Strategies to mobilize the whole village and
  coordinate prosocial education, violence
  prevention and health-mental health efforts
• N

Jonathan Cohen, Ph.D. Center for Social and
Emotional Education Teachers College, Columbia
University National School Climate
Council. Teen Dating Violence Prevention  Why
Middle School Matters Start Strong Building
Healthy Teen Relationships Communities - Atlanta
GA, Austin TX, Boston MA, Bridgeport CT, Bronx
NY, Idaho, Indianapolis IN, Los Angeles CA,
Oakland CA, Rhode Island, Wichita KS in
collaboration with the Interagency Workgroup on
Teen Dating Violence     Department of Justice,
810 7th Street NW, 3rd Floor Conference Room,
Washington, DC July 20, 2010 2-430 pm  
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Goals

• 1. To appreciate how many K-12 students feel
  unsafe and how social norms contribute to this.
• 2. To consider how school climate reform is a
  data driven strategy that recognizes the social,
  emotional and civic as well as intellectual
  aspects of student learning and school
  improvement efforts.
• 3. To consider a school climate improvement model
  and implementation strategy to prevent
  relationship violence and promote upstander
  behavior.
• 4. To highlight school climate process recognizes
  bully-victim-bystander behavior and can be used
  to prevent bullying and promote upstander
  behavior.

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Feeling safe an unmet need

• Today, over 50 of Americas K-12 students do
  not feel safe in school.
• Large scale student surveys (Quaglia)
• Our school climate findings
• On the power of social norms
• - bully-victim behavior
• - the role of the witness bystander or
  upstander

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On the power of measurement . . .

• not everything that can be counted counts,
  and not everything that counts can be counted.
  Einstein
• Today, in K-12 education what counts is
  reading, math and science scores.. and rates of
  physical violence
• School climate The quality and character of
  school life (norms, goals, beliefs
  relationships leadership organizational
  structure)
• Safety
• Relationships
• Teaching and learning
• Institutional environment

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Educational standards Setting the bar
National School Climate
Standards Addressing three essential
questions i) What are the specific skills,
knowledge and dispositions that we -- the school
community -- most importantly believe can and to
be promoted Why these skills, knowledge and
dispositions? And, how do we know that they
really matter? ii) How can and will school
leaders and the school community translate the
school communitys vision into educational policy
and rules? And, iii) How will school leaders and
the school community translate this policy into
effective pedagogic, risk prevention and health
promotion practices?

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School Climate Improvement Process Stages
Stage 1 Preparation
Stage 2 Evaluation
Stage 5 Re-Evaluation
Stage 3 Understanding Action Planning
Stage 4 Implementation
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Acknowledgments

• The National School Climate Council
• CSEEs Staff and Board of Trustees
• The hundreds of classroom, family, building,
  district and state leaders and, most importantly,
  the children and adolescents who have been my
  teachers.

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Thank You!

• Jonathan Cohen, Ph.D.
• President, The Center for Social and Emotional
  Education (CSEE)
• 1841 Broadway, New York, NY 10023
• [phone] F [phone]
• Jonathancohen_at_csee.net
• Co-chair, National School Climate Council
• Adjunct Professor in Psychology and Education,
  Teachers College, Columbia University
• Adjunct Professor in Education, School of
  Professional Studies, City University of N.Y.